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New and Naive...help me

I am a 20 year old women living in the rude town of Dubuque, Iowa. I decided to finally become Vegan at around 3 in the morning today. I am not going vegan for my health alone, but mainly for the sake of animals which I don't want to see slaughtered. I am also concerned for my overweight fiancé. His appetite, thirst for meat, and his health are alarming to me. Another concern I have is my own pickiness towards food and my fiancé’s stubbornness. There are so many foods and vegetables that I don’t like in the slightest; eggplant, tofu, soy milk, squash, zucchini, and tomatoes to name a few. Anyone have advice for me? Oh and just so you know, I haven’t broke the news to my fiancé yet and I don’t think he will take it well:( Help me!!!

Hi. My advice is... if you are strong willed, you will succeed. I try to make things and sometimes I don't like them. You can find a substitute for most things but you have to be willing to accept the fact that it will not taste exacting the same. Because I refuse to not be a vegan, I accept it and learn to love it. Most people think they don't like tofu. It really has to be cooked properly. It has no taste. Dry frying it gives it a nice texture. I also use it to make vegan ricotta, egg salad, cheesecake, etc. I love being a vegan. You have way more options now than I did 10 years ago. I lived on Boca Burgers and now hate them. I love to cook so that helps. I don't like eggplant either. But I do like some squash, savory not sweet. I don't drink milk just to drink it. Soymilk does taste different. I used to drink skim milk. When you use soymilk in your coffee, cereal or mashed potatoes, I think there is no difference. I still eat some junk food and love it. My husband is not a vegan but we don't cook meat at the house. I love ethnic food so we make mexican, indian, thai, chinese or italian. I've been a vegan for 10 years and was a vegetarian for 10 years before that. I love the lifestyle. There are some real issues with the way that dairy products are produced. I am a complete ethical vegan but don't push my views on people. Try checking out Pinterest and look for vegan recipes. Glad you came to Vegweb. It was my go to for everything. I have found some great recipes here. I just made my husband a vegan German Chocolate Cake. It is absolutely amazing. You can do it..... it just takes time to learn how to cook certain things, checking labels for hidden animal ingredients and experimenting to find things you really like. Good luck! Dawn

See if your library or bookstore has any of the donna klein cookbooks, especially "Supermarket Vegan." I think those are good cookbooks to start with because they use readily available ingredients. Also, it could be you don't like a lot of vegetables because most people prepare them as an afterthought. Once you've started cooking vegetarian dishes you will find there is a whole food world out there you never knew existed!

These are all great tips! Also, if you can, have him watch Forks Over Knives (it's on Instant Netflix), it's a great documentary about meat and health. I don't know, it was really effective with my dad, men seem to really dig it! Women, too, but for some reason I mainly see men talking about it!